Center for Strategic Communication

by Steven R. Corman

An anti-Islam Member of Parliament from the Netherlands, Geert Wilders, has produced a short film that portrays the Quran as an inspiration for terrorist attacks and violence. A recent story in the New York Times on Wilders and his effort reported that

He routinely equates the Koran with Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” saying it should be banned in the Netherlands, and he declared in an interview that the Prophet Muhammad could be compared to the German dictator. “In his Medina time, if he would be alive today, Muhammad would be treated as a war criminal, being sent out of the country, being sent to jail,” he said.

Coming on the heels of a recent threat against Europe by Osama bin Laden stemming form the Danish cartoon controversy, the film promises to stir an already-heated cultural conflict over Islam in Europe.

Wilders, who has had trouble finding a Dutch distributor for his film, has been planning to distribute the film over the internet. But today the AP is reporting that his web site is being blocked by U.S. Internet Service Provider Network Solutions. The site at http://fitnathemovie.com now contains a notice that the site is under investigation for terms of service violations.

The ISP’s policy has broad prohibitions against “objectionable material of any kind or nature.” However, as one commenter on Digg pointed out, Networks Solutions also hosts the English web site of Hezbollah, whose material many people find objectionable.

According to the AP story, Wilders is undeterred by censorship of his web site:

“If necessary, I’ll go hand out DVDs personally on the Dam,” he said, referring to Amsterdam’s central square.